How to Create a WiFi Hotspot Using the Command Prompt

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This wikiHow teaches you how to broadcast your Windows computer's Internet as a wireless hotspot using the Command Prompt application. To do this, you must be using an administrator account on your computer.

Turn on the WiFi on the computer you wish to add and find the hotspot, which would be under the name you typed after SSID= , then click on it and it will ask you for the password. The password is what you typed after KEY=.

How can I set the hosted network to be started automatically every time I start my computer?

Community Answer

Create a batch file (.bat) with the command `netsh wlan start hostednetwork` and save it. Open Task Scheduler and create a basic task with an option to **Run it at startup** and link with the batch file you just created. Save and exit.

I was following the steps and got an error message: "hosted network could not be started." What can I do to fix this?

Community Answer

First verify that your wireless adapter supports hosted network, as shown in step 3. Try reinstalling the driver. Right click This PC go to Device Manager. Under Network Adapters, identify your adapter, right click on it and click on Uninstall then click OK on confirmation. Restart your computer and Windows will automatically detect your adapter and install required drivers. Verify again and if it is yes, then create and start hosted network.

Skip the "key=password" part in the command line. Stop at "ssid=yourname." This is not recommended as it makes your WiFi/internet connection vulnerable to attack, as a non password protected WiFi is visible and accessible to anyone within range. Your connection can be used by these troublemakers to download malicious stuff even onto your laptop, and can severely slow down your internet speed as they use up the data.

Do you have any troubleshooting tips? Whenever I do this, I get an error message that says the hotspot couldn't be activated and my resource is not in a correct state to perform the requisite action. My driver does support creating a hotspot.

Community Answer

Go to Network Adapter and open LAN Properties. In the Sharing tab, enable Sharing and save. Then try this -- it will work. In case if your LAN goes limited, then just troubleshoot it.

Yes, as long as there is enough broadband-capacity to serve more than one mobile device with fast internet speed. Keep in mind that the more devices there are connected to the Hotspot, the slower the internet will become.

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Reader Success Stories

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Peter Glusa

May 3, 2017

"Have been trying to set up a Wi-Fi hotspot on a small Win 10 machine. It just kept dropping out after around 10 minutes of non-use, even with all settings for network cards and system to not be activated by any form of power save features. Decided to give the command line a go and see what happens. Thanks for all those who created and responded to this how-to, it helped me a lot."..." more

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Anonymous

Mar 26, 2017

"My parents turn off WiFi to my phone every night, so I used this to create a hotspot on my mom's computer, which has Internet access 24/7."..." more

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Maphe Drey

Apr 18, 2016

"Every last detail was helpful. Thanks a lot, team wikiHow. More people like you, and the world will be a much, much better place."..." more

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Manish Singh

Sep 3, 2016

"I would love to use a WiFi hotspot in Windows 7 and it helped to create a hotspot using command prompt."